Monday, May 31, 2010

I had to work out of town today. And by the time I got home it was too dark for me to take any pics of the things I made on the weekend, which is what I planned to do. so I'll bore you with some pics of the places I visited today. I could only work until a certain time in the morning, where I was working, and had to entertain myself over lunch, so I went down the highway. I also did a little mud 4x4ing. Woo hoo! Fun! And then I had to go back after lunch and finish my work in the afternoon.This picture is of a 100-year old coal mine that I have every intention of touring when I have three hours.Tomorrow, I'll have pics of some ATC's I worked on this weekend. Promise.Now I have to blurf. I've missed my friends. Later Gator.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Friday, May 28, 2010

1. _Lots is__ -- the best food to take on a picnic.2. Summer _may never come, judging from the snow outside on the ground this morning_. 3. _We used to call them thongs, now we call them_ flip flops.4. To love someone is _the best feeling in the world_. 5. __Sometimes I sit and think about taking_ a long hike.6. When I crave food, it's usually _something that is not good for me_.7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _some rest_, tomorrow my plans include _working on a project I have in my head_ and Sunday, I want to _make fairy princess castles with some little girls I know_!check out lots more posts here!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

in no particular order. Well, they SHOULD be, but I have such a hard time bloggin backwards, when I want to post more than one photo that I got all mixed up. and I'm not starting again.

The challenge this week at Order of the Opus Gluei is to make something with seasonal icons. So I've done a LO for each season. This first one is my favorite season, autumn. I LOVE the colours and usually on weekends, I'll go to the river at sunrise and then back at sunset and in between too, and fill my hard drive with pics. These pics are from last year, not this past one, cus we went directly from summer to winter and someone (I'm not saying who) forgot to tell Mother Nature to get up early and beat the rush. So NO colours this year. I'd still be bitter about it if I weren't so ADHD.

I give you Autumn.

PS. I realize if you came here by link, you'll only see this post. If you want to see all four seasons, please click on the header and that'll give you all four. My gosh, sorry for this, I'm having a blonde day, apparently.

I'm so fortunate, I have a pile of photos just waiting to be scrapped and I can go to them any time I want to and make something. that's the good part. the bad part is that I only just finished my wedding album and I've been divorced 8 years. LOLWell, the point is, when a challenge calls for something, I can find a photo (s) that fits and spend my weekend, well not the WHOLE weekend, unless, I spend the WHOLE weekend doing it, making whatever. I just need to try to remember the year I took it.

This LO is from pics I took the other night tho. I LOVE these photos and I LOVE cherry trees. As part of an online class I took (and should have finished weeks ago, right Jana?) I had to "wander aimlessly". To make a long story short, I ended up at a long row of flowering cherry trees and the world stopped for me. Stayed there until the sun went down. So this LO is this spring. And for some reason, I've had a hankering lately to see if I can write a word with wire. That's a blast from the past. Hence, the word "Spring" at the bottom. I think it says it all.

Well, it's seasonal to me. It's a pic of two girls on a ride at the Calgary Stampede. In our neck of the woods, the only time you're going to be on a ride is in the summer time, we're not like those (spoiled) places that have nice weather ALL YEAR ROUND and rides ALL YEAR ROUND like Disneyland or California. Humphf. Anyways, the sun on their skin and the look on their faces just yells SUMMER! to me. If you listen real hard, you can hear them scream. You should really come to the Stampede. You'd get it if you did. Second week in July. Bring your spurs. I have a spare room. Just let me know you're coming.

This page intentionally has no title. That's cus I want the viewer to climb into it and feel the winterness of it (tee hee) As I was making it, I was remembering the beautiful day and how I snuck off from work between a community meeting and getting back to the office. I couldn't help myself! I was taking photos, in my old little world (quickly, but still my own little world) and a man came up to me and asked me if I would like a photo of me! I was so surprised I said yes. So I have a picture of me, in the snow, happy as a clam, just before I have to boogie back to work. It's my weakness, taking pictures of nature. What can I say? I never take a break at work, so what the heck.BTW, you can stop searching the LO, THAT photo is not on it. You could blackmail me with it.

Monday, May 24, 2010

I know, I know, it's nigh impossible to believe. Me, Electra the psycho-scrapper, who would sell her first-born for another hour of uninterrupted scrappin-time. (Fortunately it's never come to that), is scrapped out! With only a couple of little side expeditions (like to buy food and cook same food), I scrapped for three days. No work to interfere. heavenly. HOWEVER (and there's always a HOWEVER in life, isn't there), my back has totally given up the ghost and is on strike. You could say, it's holding a "sit-in" LOL

Usually when this feeling takes over, I can sit down at the puter and feed my addiction that way, but I haven't been able to do that for any length of time today either. Like I say, I'm scrapped out. So I did yardwork, went to the garden centre and bought my plants. For those of you in the warmer parts of North America and beyond where you actually HAVE a summer, this may seen a little late, but trust me. If we plant our outdoor gardens BEFORE the May long weekend, IT WILL SNOW on the defenceless little saplings. It's a fact. Count on your fingers with me, kids. That gives us a three month growing period. Stoopid. Our province has more sunshine than any other spot in North America, trouble is those sunny days often include snow. It snowed at my wedding, July 19th.(ish) who remembers their wedding anniversary? Oh right, those people who are STILL MARRIED! Well, some things are better forgotten. That's all I'll say on that subject. Trust me, it's better this way.

And I went out on an adventure from Keri Smith's "How to be an Everyday Adventurer" in which I had to wander aimlessly. I cut up a bunch of slips of paper with Left or Right on them and if I chose Left, I had to drive two blocks and turn Left and vice versa if I chose Right, and then see where I ended up, Well, where I ended up was at the most spectacular row of flowering cherry trees all in a row. Awesome! I'll show you some pics tomorrow. They were so pretty!

This LO is for a monthly challenge I do at a local scrapbook store. They give you what you have to use, of course and while the items are not what I would normally put together, that's the point of a challenge right?

Now I know you saw this picture of the violinist only a few days ago, but I needed to scrap her and the colours in the challenge kit seemed to speak to me.

I added a couple of closeups, one on the flower (there was green tulle in the kit) and the other of her wings, I love how I did them with the Robins Nest Whachamacallums. I know there's a real word, I just can't remember it right now.

Whenever I go somewhere via highway, I should leave myself a bunch of extra time to get there when I say I'll be there. I just can't drive by an old barn, abandoned farmhouse or row of old grain elevators without stopping, getting out and exploring.Which then leads to checking out the ol' general store and the church and the back lanes and, and, well, you get the picture. HAH! So I can get the picture! Yup, that was bad. Anyways, my roadtrip the day I took this photo was no exception. LOVED the backdrop to this old house. I loved Arizona when we were there this past summer because there were lots of old buildings along the highway we were on. But it was too d%*n hot to stop.

On another note, I made these little flowers out of tissue paper and I think they turned out smashingly, if I do say so myself. They don't show up very well on the picture, tho. Can you see them on the closeup? Punch them out scrunch them up and stick em on the paper with a brad. How easy is that?

Can you imagine having 2089 followers? And over 200,000 visits to your blog? Yikes, makes me tired just thinking about it. Well, Priscilla Heaton of Priscillastyles is celebrating one year of Midnight Madness sketch challenges! She is having the most spectacular giveaway-head over there and you'll be amazed, as was I! Happy Blogiversary Priscilla!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

I just got a response that my Pirate ATC for a swap arrived at it's destination, so I can show it to you now.I meant for it too look a little ratty and it does, so I achieved that goal. When I look closely at the bird on his shoulder (I couldn't find a parrot in my stash, no matter how hard I looked), I wish I had cut it out a bit closer. It was so little though and my fingers are so not. The pirate is a stamp from the Curious By Design Collection. Corners by the American Tag Company. I coloured the things that should be gold with a gold H2O. Tim's filmstrip, coloured with alcohol inks. And of course the bird. From my stash. But not a parrot. That's about it!

Paper, not digital. I stopped to cook. And eat. And that's about it. Oh yeah, I went outside once to blow the glitter off a LO, in the back yard. Pretty much a perfect day, in Electra-world.I am not however showing you any of the paper stuff I made, only the digital LO I just finished, when I sat down at the computer and switched over to digital. Here it is the end of May and I just realized I never did my calendar for April. Keeping in mind of course that these calendars are after-the-fact calendars, not let's-see-what-do-I-have-planned-for-today calendars. That was a lot of hypens. I always have to stop and think about hyphens. Is anyone else out there old enough to remember typing class in high school? Is anyone out there old enough to remember typewriters? Geesh. Just saying that out loud makes me feel like Lily Tomlin doing her Phone Operator routine. One-ringy-dingy, two ringy-dingy. Argh, MORE hyphens. YES, Virginia, there was a time when all girls had to learn how to type. I suppose that's so we had something to do while we were waiting for someone to marry us. I never learned to type well, and I'm not married (any more). Does that mean I'm a failure? No, it simply means I have good taste. And can't type.

But instead I scrapbooked.My back started to hurt from standing up for so long (which is how I scrapbook, standing up), so I sat down at the puter and did a few: These are two of them. All people and animal images are from Lisa's Altered Art, except for the modern girl, who is from me. LOL

Friday, May 21, 2010

May is almost over, but here is my fabric postcard for The Postcard ChallengeIt's a good change for me to work with fabric instead of paper from time-to-time and this challenge gives me that impetus. I stamped the dress with Staz-On Ink and an Inkadinkado stamp, then shaded it a bit with a Twinkling H2O. I embroidered the outline with embroidery floss and then embellished the straps with some beads from my stash. I made a flower from some sheer fabric I had lying around. Heck, ANY fabric I use has been laying around, I can't trust myself to go into a fabric store.Then, I sprayed the whole kit and kaboodle with gold Maya Mist to give it a bit of a vintage feel (which I'm not sure worked) and then did the blanket stitch around the edges.And THIS, on the 21st of the month, is my May fabric postcard.

1. _Art and music_ never fails to make me smile.2. I'm looking forward to _the long weekend_. 3. Rich Bride, Poor Bride_is what I'm listening to right now.4. Potato salad must have a touch of mustard_ in it! 5. _Popcorn_ was the best thing I ate today.6. Today was _nice, knowing I have the next four days off_.7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to relaxing_, tomorrow my plans include _scrapbooking at a store workshop for the day_ and Sunday, I want to _do nothing_!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

I'll bet you thought you were going to see an ATC with some cool Celtic embellishments on it, when you saw the title of this post. Nope.

The other night I went to see Celtic Woman with a friend. A couple of people commented that they too liked these ladies and so I thought I would post some pics of the show. Consider yourself warned, there is nothing crafty from me tonight, just good ol' fashioned photographs. Pure girlisciousness. It's so nice (at least to me) in this world of Lady Gaga (who I LOVE LOVE LOVE, by the way) and the lack of manners in general on the boob-tube (now I sound like my mother) to see four absolutely lovely, ladylike, princessy-type girly-girls dress up in ballgowns and wear them the way they are supposed to be worn. OK, I'm getting down off my soap-box. It was wonderful, tho. Just sayin.

Playing with them was Anthony Byrne who has actually performed for the Pope and the Queen, no less. At one point in the show, he walked through the crowd from the back, in the dark, with just a light on him, playing Amazing Grace. The crowd started to hum along, really softly at first and then everyone was joining in. Later in the show, the ladies said that in their entire North American Tour, they had never had any audience do that. Brought tears to my eyes, more than once, this concert did. And THAT is the mark of fine music, IMO.

The "fiddler" (and that is one poor word for what this lady did) played her violin and danced all over the stage. She was like a woodland nymph or something. I can barely walk and chew gum at the same time.

Will you LOOK at those dresses? A wonderful concert it was, to be sure.After three curtain calls, we went outside and heard the sound of bagpipes. There, outside of the venue, up top of some steps, was the piper. A crowd circled him and you could have heard a pin drop as he played.

You know, after some pretty challenging times lately in my day-to-day world, Celtic Woman made it all OK again.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Healthy, Wealthy and Wise, that's this week's challenge at The Order of the Opus Gluei. What to do? I asked myself, as I am none of these things. Then I had a flash of inspiration-I know, I'll copy Jana! So I did bookmarks. I NEED bookmarks, and I had TIME to do bookmarks, so bookmarks it is. They're digital, with all elements from Scrapartist one of my favorite sites for digital goodies. So now I have 3 lovely bookmarks and can read three, count em, three books at the same time!Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but I'm going to a concert tonight, gotta run. Catch ya later!

Monday, May 17, 2010

This month at the Artist Trading Club, May's challenge is "Peeled Paint".Guest designer Gaby gave us a wonderful tutorial on how to do this technique. It must have been wonderful if I could do it!

Well, I did my ATC's for the swap and they're in the mail, so now I'll post them on here for the world (hahaha!) to see. I made nine, cus I always make extra(It's a secret which ones I put in the mail.)and I'm really happy with them. I'm so glad I found Chriss' site with the "Swap Till You Drop Club" Not only am I enjoying her challenges and the fantabulous artwork on her blog, I now know how to send myself a letter from the UK. With Postage. How cool is that? (It was no easy feat, in case you're wondering why I mention it.)

Hope you enjoy these, click on the pic if your eyes are as bad as mine. The images are from Lisa's Altered Art, by the way.TTFN.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

The other day, I was sitting at a stop light downtown, with one of my staff in the passenger seat. I was in my own little world and Stephen said "Look! A donkey!"

I looked to the right and saw that we were face-to-face with a baby moose (which Stephen had apparently never seen before). The moose took off down the street, weaving in and out of traffic, with (get this) 6 police cruisers and wildlife officers in hot pursuit. (If the cops put that much energy into catching gang members, we'd all be a lot safer.) Cowboy up!!! I heard on the news that night that they had finally cornered it and tranquilized it and returned it to wherever baby mooses come from. It's a good thing Mama wasn't there too. Those Mama's are mean critters. Have you ever seen a moose? (As I said, Stephen hadn't, so I'm going to assume there are others in the world who haven't had the pleasure as well). Well, they look like Creator took all the left-over parts from all of the animals He designed and smooshed them all together. They probably would have called it a smoosh, but that sounds like you've been drinking when you say it, so I think they came up with Moose.So that's the first contact I had with animals in the past few days.

Now before I tell you this other story, I'm going to ask you to please keep in mind that I have told you I DO love animals, really I do. There was this skunk in the back alley behind my house. I never met this skunk, but I have it on good authority that he was there. I have no reason to doubt it. And there is this Chinese man who lives in the house behind me. Well, he came running out of his house screaming that the skunk sprayed his dog and he chased after the skunk with a golf club and well, suffice it to say, the skunk is not spraying anyone now. This lovely man was wearing a suit during this. Are you with me? Nice mild-mannered middle-aged Chinese man with a golf club chasing a skunk down the alley and the man wins. Nuff said. I know it's sad, but it's also really really funny, if you ask me.

I love animals. Really!

I should add, I live in a city of over a million people. Not some village in the backwoods where we all drive pickups and marry men named "Beau". although I would marry a man named Beau if he asked me.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Here it is! Although you have to look pretty closely to find the ribbon we were supposed to use and it's not actually "ribbon" but cord, but it came out of my ribbon stash, so that's what I've used. I hope you'll visit Order of the Opus Gluei It's a really fun place with fun people and talent galore!Chris commented in an earlier post that it might be a good plan to work out my frustration from a difficult week at work through my art and so that's exactly what I've done. Between that and an evening spent with a good friend, I think I may not run away from home. Not right away anyways. Thanks Chris!I hope you'll also wander over and check out the "I Made It" blog party at Everything Etsy. Not only do they showcase really kewl items, they have some great giveaways. You can visit them here

Friday, May 14, 2010

1. I just had-the worst day EVER at work.2. That's just how it-is. 3. The third sentence on the 7th page of the book I'm reading: -observe, collect, analyze, compare, notice, patterns.4. Black humour-tickles my fancy. 5. I was walking-out of the office today thinking I don't ever want to come back here.6. My ex-husband- makes me laugh!(sometimes)7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to -sleep, tomorrow my plans include -going to a Red Hat Garage Sale and Sunday, I want to play with paper, not my computer! Check out more wonderful Friday Fill-Ins here and have a great weekend, if we don't see each other before then!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

"Back in the Day" I've heard that a few times from different people lately. What day would this be? If it's different people from totally different walks of life saying this, are they all talking about the same day? Was I there that day? Were you? Was it early in "the day" or late in "the day"? What were we doing that day?And next week, when someone says "Back in the day" will they be talking about a different day? Or the same day? It's all very disturbing. It makes me feel old.Real old.

On a cheerier note, this pic is of a present I made for my buddy Gini in the Great United Kingdom. Where the queen lives. I wonder if Gini knows her? Gini is such a special lady, and I feel so blessed that she's come into my life. Actually, I feel that way about all the folks I've had the good fortune to meet since I decided to do this bloggy thing. I'm so fortunate. Anyways, I made her this shadow box, complete with her guinea pig Spanky (click to enlarge and if you look carefully,you'll find Spanky). I had to keep it a secret from y'all while it wended (is that a word?) it's way across the ocean, but she and spanky have it now, so I can show you. TA DA!

Sunday, May 9, 2010

I got turned onto Swap-bot by my friend Jana. Since then, it seems like I've done nothing else, but that of course is not true. It just seems that way. The first swap I did had a wedding theme. And this ATC was what I made. The background is two layers of cardstock. The photo is from the Internet. (dontcha just LOVE it?)I added a tiny gold corner and a carriage charm, red rick-rack, and the skirt is white tulle, just like a bride's skirt should be. Lastly is the sentiment from Lisa's Altered Art. This ATC went to the Chezch Republic (and now you ALL know that I cannot spell the Checzk Republic.) That's OK, I copied it for the address on the envelope.

For this one, we had to agree to make an ATC of whatever theme our assigned partner chose. Risky. :-) My partner wanted an IT Queen. Gheesh! but I agreed, so I had to get creative. I printed out some computer-themed paper I had in my digital stash, the woman is from Suse Weinberg's "Instant Art", the crown is a child's sticker that for some obscure reason I bought in a dollar store one day, I printed out the words on cardstock, the corner is TSS metal, bling on the corner and of course the bling swirl...whew! Oh yeah, ribbon, and I stamped a calendar sideways on the background and the lipstick? Well, she was drunk when she put it on, what can I say? And if you followed that, you're a better woman than I.

For this swap, we had to make an ATC with the theme: Dessert. Pretty straight-forward, except I kept getting hungry while I was making it and had to take snack-breaks. The background is some glittery paper with various and sundry sweets all over it (from my stash), I stamped the edges in purple, the spoon is cut from some more paper from my stash, the waitress is from the Internet. Her wings and the words are from Lisa's Altered Art and the yummy confection is by Freubel Oh yeah, there's a crystal cherry on top of the dessert. Looks good enough to eat, eh?

This one is for my swap partner whose favorite colour is Teal. We had to read our partner's profile to learn his/her favorite colour, then go to a website to learn the binary, tertiary and quadupiary (LOL! I don't remember the right words) combos, and then make an ATC in that combination. Which is what I did. The background is done with the peeled paint technique (learned through Chriss' Artist Trading Club ) and stamped, then a rose, little girl and the words (by Lisa's Altered Art) were added, along with a couple of birds flying by (Martha Stewart's punch) and the words were crackled, then her shoes were stickled, her dress was embellished with marker dots and a Swarovski crystal finishes it all off. I hope my partner likes it!

These are the ATC's I made for the Botanical Challenge at Gingersnap Creations I wander over there pretty much daily to gaze at the talented contributions from the DT and decided to take part in this one. What fun it was!

Another place I stroll over to is Everything Etsy, especially their Thursday Blog Parties.They always have lots of blog candy and to tell you the truth, I spend WAY more time there than I should. But I like it. Take a wander over there and see what's up!

I had big plans tonight to post. Big plans, But I got busy in my studio and it's now after 2AM. Geesh. So this is what I'm posting instead. With few words to accompany it. Except to say that I scrap-lifted the plan for this page from Gina Cunningham of *Tyggereye Art LoveI hope you'll visit her blog, she's one of the most creative people I "know" I say "know" like that cus I only know her through her blog. But her blog is inspiring, I hope you go over there to see for yourself. You won't be disappointed.

My Administrative Assistant

Artful Bag Challenge

Not Ladylike

Bloggerette Sorority

Won't you join us?

Paris in July

-because you shouldn't have to look at your blog like it is a treadmill.
-because it's okay to just say what you have to say. If that makes for a long post, fine. short post, fine. Frequent post, fine. Infrequent post, fine.
-because it's okay not always to be enthralled with the sound of your own typing.
-because sometimes less is more.
-because only blogging when you feel truly inspired keeps up the integrity of your blog.
-because they are probably not going to inscribe your stats, link and comments numbers on your tombstone.
-because for most of us blogging is just a hobby. A way to express yourself and connect with others. You should not have to apologize for lapses in posts. Just take a step back and enjoy life, not everything you do has to be "bloggable".
-because if you blog without obligation you will naturally keep your blog around longer, because it won't be a chore. Plus just think you will be doing your part to eradicate post pollution. One post at a time...
REPEAT AFTER ME: I will not apologize for not posting in awhile.